SXSW: Blouse

Saturday, 9 p.m. @ The Parish

Portland's Blouse make dreamy dream-pop that was originally dreamed up by bands in the 80s. On record, there's a self-consciousness to their dream parade, like a dream about one of the third-level dreams of the dream-based film Inception. Live, though, the dream pops loose thanks to the reality of a band playing in front of people.

Granted, there were attempts to keep this dream alive, including dreamy blue lights and the heaps of reverb slathered onto frontwoman Charlie Hilton's dreamscaped vocals. But I could only get half asleep, partly thanks to the very real seven-foot man who insisted on standing in front of me during the set. Pretty soon, the dream was over. And I got a hankering for some nightmares.

Songs that would make a solid soundtrack to a slow motion video of thousands of VHS tapes being melted down into psychedelic sludge: Every single one

Bassist's head-bop level: Listening to Drake on the subway

Words sung by Hilton that my brain was able to actually recognize and comprehend through the reverb: Just two: "thank" and "you"